


for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat

by Jedi Buttercup (jedibuttercup)



Series: yea, though I Walk [6]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Choices, Episode Tag, Gen, Introspection, Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 00:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/pseuds/Jedi%20Buttercup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't just the cleared streets and pristine lawns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat

**Author's Note:**

> Because the second time I watched the early S3 episodes, something stuck out to me about the Woodbury survivors that I hadn't noticed before.

It wasn't just the cleared streets and pristine lawns. The medicine that had saved her. The smiles on the faces of the townsfolk as they walked from house to house without hurry, and the charismatic man who'd enabled them to live in such safety that half of them hadn't even seen a walker turn before.

Andrea looked at the smiling faces around her and saw _chubby cheeks_. Bellies overlapping belts on some of the men. Lush curves on the mature women: a few pregnant, but some just _plump_ , with ample cleavage and 'junk in the trunk' that would have been an inspiration to diet, before, but only made her envious now. Walking advertisements for the wealth of Woodbury. 

Money didn't mean a damn thing in the walkers' world; the only currencies left were weapons-- and food. She and Michonne had had the first but not the second out in those woods, and she felt all the poverty of their existence by comparison.

That child, laughing at his mother's side: he'd never been so starved that he'd stopped feeling hungry and had to take small bites of what food he did find to keep from vomiting it back up. That young woman, making eyes at one of the guards: she'd never been so thirsty her lips cracked 'til they bled and had to suck on a stone just to work up enough saliva to talk. Woodbury's people lived in a world without that deprivation-- and the kind of desperation it could lead to.

Andrea liked to think of herself as a self-sufficient woman, but the relief of not having to worry about where her next meal was coming from for once was the last straw in a heap of them. Why _should_ she deny herself that pleasure? Or any of the pleasures Woodbury had to offer?

She cared about Michonne like a sister after the long winter they'd spent together, but she wouldn't have asked _Amy_ to cut off her nose to spite her face; she'd have wanted her to partake of that wealth. And she couldn't understand why Michonne would ask her to do otherwise.

Andrea wanted to _thrive_ ; the joy of living after merely _existing_ for so long was better than any drug. Now that she'd found it again, she didn't want to give it up.

...And she'd been left behind, before. She could survive it this time, too.

\---


End file.
